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AMWELL 



raE ANCIENT VILLAGE, 

AMWELL 



BY C W. LARISON, M. D. 






FLEMINGTON, N. J. 

H. E. DEATS 
1916 






3 



Gift 
MAR 21 19/6 



Read at the annual meeting of the Hun- 
terdon County Historical Society, Flem- 
ington, N. J., January 11, 1908. 

Published in the Hunterdon County 
Democrat, Flemington, N. J., .\i>ril 14 
and April 21, 1915. 

One hundred copies printed in this form, 
from the same type, February, 1916. 



THE KILLGORE PRESS. 

Flemington, N. J. 



Tke Ancient Village, Amwell 



That process in the forwarding and developing of civilization which we 
call manufacturing, had, in the central part of the Township of Amwell, 
Hunterdon County, New Jersey, its beginning in the building of a mill on the 
east bank of a rill which flows from a spring on the northern slope, near the 
summit, of the Sourland Ridge, nearly 100 yards east of the road which ex- 
tends from Ringoes to Rocktown. The spring from which this rill flows is 
small, and the rill itself is small; but when it has flowed nearly 200 yards, 
tributaries to it, from other springs along the northern brow of the ridge, 
swell its flow until it is increased many fold — until it becomes a streamlet, 
as it forces its way down the steep hillside, powerful to carry with it soil 
and other debris, and to erode the underlying indurated rock, so that during 
the eons during which it has been there flowing, it has, from its bed and its 
banks, carried away the soil, worn away the indurated rock, and trans- 
ported the debris, till it has eroded in the steep slope down which it flows, a 
gorge, the higher bank of which is along the eastern side of the rill. 

Save where interrupted by the dams constructed for milling purposes, 
from the site at which the several streamlets join to make the stream once 
called Mill Brook, but now called Clearwater Rill, till it reaches the plain 
which skirts Mallard Rivulet, a tributary of the Neshanic, it abounds in 
rapids, purling, hurrying, plashing currents, and small cascades, one of 
which, near the site of the oldest mill, when first I saw this stream, was 
about ten feet high, so rapid is its flow, and so picturesque the spectacle it 
makes. 

To afford a notion of the value of this little rill for the purpose of driv- 
ing the machinery of mills, distilleries, factories, etc., I need to state that 
the site upon which was the largest dam (the only one now existent) is fully 
100 feet higher than the water in the wheel-pit beneath the wheel which 
drives the machinery of the lowest mill on this stream — the so-called Old 
Dawlis Mill, still in use — on the plain which skirts the slope of the Sourland. 
Readily it is seen that between the mill upon the plain, at the terminus of 
the slope, and the dam built for the storing of water for mill and factory 
purposes, allowing 20 feet for the diameter of each wheel, there might be 
at the least five overshot wheels, to drive the machinery of as many mills, 
the same water flowing from the wheel-pit of one wheel, on and into the 
buckets of another overshot wheel, on to the end of the series — as was ac- 
tually the case when the ancient village of Amwell was mart and manufac- 
turing center for that part of the county of Hunterdon surrounding this 
village for many miles. The more easily — indeed, with the greatest ease 
possible — was this effected, — as may be seen by the topography of the area 
through which the rill flows, — because the eastern bank of the rill, all 
along, rises steeply up — in some places to the height of about 30 feet, — so 
that to secure a suitable supply of water to any mill wheel, there was needed 
only a suitable excavation in the bank for a race leading from the rill up to 
a site opposite to the site upon which the mill was built, terminating in a 
suitable excavation and an embankment to hold the water conducted thereto, 
to be in readiness to use when needed. In any case, the trunk leading from 
the forebay to the wheel-box was short — not more than 30 feet. 

Such being the condition of the eastern bank of the rivulet, all the 



mills and factories (of which there were six — two grist mills, a rye and corn 
distillery, an oil mill, a cider mill and brandy distillery, and a sawmill) were 
on the eastern side of the rill, so located that the water, when it had driven 
the first wheel, from the first wheel-pit was conducted by a race along the 
sloping eastern bank of the rill to a forebay opposite to the mill or factory 
next below. Thus arranged, the water from the uppermost, that is, the 
highest, dam of the stream (for of dams of this stream, there were three, 
each assisting in the gathering of water to aid in the driving of the mills 
below), which drove the wheel of the first mill, in turn, drove the wheel of 
each mill below. 

When, 58 years ago, with boy relatives and boy neighbors, I first visited 
this place to enjoy the sport of swimming, and to learn how well the boys 
of this district were provided with accommodations to learn this useful art, 
and to enjoy the sport thereof, the three dams still existed, but only one 
factory and one mill remained, the sites of the other edifices, however, being 
well marked by scattered elements of their ruins. Though the water of the 
upper and largest dam was sufficient to accommodate any who went merely 
to swim, yet, to be able to say that I had tried not only the best in that vi- 
cinity, but all which there was thereabouts, at succeeding visits 1 tried the 
waters, and the mud under them, of which there was an abundance, of the 
other two dams; and while thereat, visited and critically examined the ruins 
of the edifices which had served their turns and were then hard upon the 
road to obliteration. 

Four mills in the upper part of this row were so built, by excavating the 
bank against which they stood, that between the buildings and the race was 
a spacious drive, the surface of which was almost level with the third floor 
of each mill or factory, so that, viewed from the west, each building seemed 
to consist of four stories, while viewed from any point on the east — es- 
pecially from the road which passed by the eastern side of it — it seemed 
only two stories high. In this was great advantage in the unloading of the 
contents of wagons into the mills and other buildings into which produce 
was delivered, — since, in those days during which a sparseness of machinery 
was the rule, to unload things which passed down an inclined plane — which 
usually was a smooth board, one end resting in the wagon, the other ex- 
tending down into the mill — was easier and quicker than to unload those 
which had to be lifted or carried to upper stories by devices then in use. 
And then, as a driveway extended along the rear of these mills, between 
them and the rill, to load things, especially out of the upper stories of the 
mills, was handy and labor-saving. So, in point of handiness, and con- 
venience of approach, these mills, factories, and distilleries were accounted 
the best which, by the working of what nature supplied into what an in- 
genious, thrifty, progressive, industrious people needed to develop the arts 
and promote prosperity and refinement, couid be. 

On the west side of the rill, the bank is not high at any point, and 
in most places, it rises gently up to the height of a few feet, then the sur- 
face more gently slopes up and stretches far westward into pleasant fields 
and delightful meadows. 

On this slope, hardly farther from the rill than enough to be safe 
against unundating water in time of a severe freshet, were built upon piling, 
cattle pens enough to accommodate 500 steers, hog pens enough to accommo- 
date 1,000 swine, and other buildings necessary to shelter horses and wagons 
enough to accommodate those who carried on the enormous business of this 
place in those early times, and sheep enough to make wool and object of 
industry of those who owned homes here and lived by the business they had 
in hand. 

All which I have described, and many more things hardly less import- 
ant, occupied less than four acres of ground, so compactly built was this 
flourishing village of the past. These mills formed a center around which 



nSpJt'n7t°h?^-,i°*^'^'*%'^''' arranged. East of the old Dawlis Mill-the 
oldest of the mills,— was Lawrence Marr's blacksmith shnn fpmr>„l 7 -t 

hnnH^.L*^^ T^^ ^'^^ °^ ^^^ ""• opposite to the old mill and less than a 

flill^Pilii 

pisassfflHl 

use Snir ^r^,i'r. ?Mfur aS\r " -""^^ "'^- 

were yet in the mouths of the oM l^lks herpf hm,t7r>?'^'^ ""^^^ ^°^ "^^^^^^ 

from UnlonvlUe to RocMown « rt 1»?L i "'"/o^". "" " meets the road 

were houses/ftew of whS'still staad JJM'I'' " "" "' ^' '""' i-tervais, 
which are eisily found ' " "" remains of many others of 

Which "o'Va;;To°SS^lood''e«'e''ndV.'l°l'' 'T <■"'" ^ >"•'"«'') "'""^ 
Trenton, tt was &^Sir':;^::irt^° ^^TS^^/^.^iS'iC 



part of it from the south end of Dutch Lane to Snydertown was vacated. 

Such was Amwell in the days of her glory. She reached her culmina- 
tion about the end of the 18th century. Her decline was as rapid as her rise 
in importance. On other sites favorable to the same kinds of business, mills, 
factories, stores, and taverns were built and so managed that they became 
her rivals and shared with her what once only Amwell could do. Such was 
the milling and manufacturing interest at Alexaukin, where the stream is 
crossed by the Old York Road, whereat were a grist mill, a sawmill, an oil 
mill, a foundry, and shops for blacksmithing, wheelwrighting, chair making, 
weaving, shoe making, and almost anything else, which a citizen of Amwell 
Township at this time could use. Such an interest was farther up that 
stream, whereat were Phillips' Mills — grist mill, sawmill, oil mill, cider mill, 
rye and apple distillery, and all the necessary appurtenances thereto to 
make these industries prosperous, and the place, during her activity, noted. 
Such was Headquarters (then called Opdycke's Mills) when Opdycke oper- 
ated thereat a grist mill, a sawmill', and a distillery which supplied swill 
enough for a thousand hogs and refuse enough to feed 500 steers. Such, too, 
was the old-time settlement at Neshanic Ford, as was called the manufactur- 
ing interest at the site northeast of the site at which, a mile west of Rea- 
vilie, that stately bridge spans the Neshanic. Other rivals sharply contended 
with Amwell for equality or superiority, till much of what otherwise would 
have been done at Amwell was done elsewhere, and less efficient men 
managed the affairs of Amwell until she was fairly second rate in the strug- 
gle for being, then worse grew, then waned into insignificance, and now, dur- 
ing many years, has had only the old woolen mill, fast falling to earth, and 
the second mill which Dawlis built, as the sole remnants of what was once 
the leading — the most thriving — village of Amwell Township, as she was 
known to men 125 years ago. 

What I have written might imply that the six mills above mentioned 
were built, own'^d, and operated by one man, and that they were contem- 
porary each with the other. Not so. In December of 1727, William Dawlis 
purchased of Nathan Allen, then the sole agent of his sister, "Experience 
liield, widow and relict of Benjamin Field," who, as one of the proprietors 
of West New Jersey, had surveyed to him in 1702, 3,000 acres of the 150,000 
acres of the Indian purchase above the Falls of the Delaware, lying in or 
near the center of what afterwards became (May, 1708) Amwell Township 
of Burlington County, later Hunterdon County, N. J., 265 acres of land, the 
field notes of the survey of which are as follows: 

"Beginning at a heap of stones or a post for a corner it being also Peter 
Woolever's corner in John Swallow's line from thence along his line east 40 
chains to a Spanish oak for a corner from thence south 16 chains to a small 
black oak marked for a corner from thence south southeast 25 chains to a 
hickory tree marked for a corner from thence southwesterly 48 degrees 47 
chains to a small black tree marked for a corner from thence north westerly 
30 degrees 11 chains to a white oak for a corner from thence southwesterly 
66 degrees 9 chains to another of the aforesaid Woolever's corners from thence 
north by his line (erased) chains to the first mentioned corner containing 
265 acres besides the accustomed allowance for highways." 

Doubtless when Dawlis purchased this tract he knew its value for milling 
purposes; for during the following year, south of the northern boundary of 
his tract, he built the first grist mill in the central part of Amwell, till this 
day known to all versed in the early history of New Jersey as the Old Dawlis 
Mill. So popular was this mill, and so extensively was it patronized that in 
less than seven years, its capacity was insufficient to accommodate those 
who wished to patronize this venturous, enterprising, wealthy citizen of 
Amwell, then rapidly increasing in population and importance among the 
townships of New Jersey. To satisfy the needs of the times, he looked about 
for another millseat, and looked not long till he found one. The water from 



>l 



the wheel of his mill flowed only a few feet till, clown the steep descent 
northward, it plunged into miniature cascades, dashed over rocks, and 
plashing and foaming, leaped through the deep winding ways which it had 
worn in the indurated shale rock of that slope, till at the terminus of the 
slope, at a distance of about a hundred yards from the old mill, it gently 
flowed off to join the waters of Mallard Rivulet. The fall of the water in 
the rill, from the wheelpit of the old mill to the site at which he excavated 
for the wheelpit for the new mill is 30 feet. Here, then, in the lands of one 
John Swallow, whose lands bounded on the north, for a long way east and 
west, lands owned by Dawlis, was a site for another mill, — which could be 
built at slight cost, if the water right could be secured at a price sufficiently 
low, as the only expenditure needed to supply water to drive the machinery 
of the new mill would be the outlay necessary to excavate a race and the 
necessary accessories from the tailrace of his mill to the brow of the knoll 
which, nearly level with the wheelpit of the mill already built, was there 
an escarpment nearly as high as the roof of the mill which he was planning 
to build. 

To consummate what he thought feasible, he purchased of the said John 
Swallow, Feb. 9th, 1735, IV2 arces of land, through which flowed Clearwater 
Rill. The field notes of this survey are as follows: 

"Beginning at a white oak in the aforesaid William Dawlis' line from 
thence northeasterly from the mill along the said line 16 rods to a stake 
from thence westerly across the brook that the said Dawlis' mill stands on 
15 rods to another stake from thence southerly 16 rods to a hickory tree In 
the said Dawlis' line from thence easterly 15 rods to the first station con- 
taining IV2 acres." 

Hereon, in 1736, he built the second grist mill — standing till this day, 
and now owned and operated by Edwin S. Gimson. These two are the only 
uses of the rill by William Dawlis, the builder of the first mill in the central 
part of Amwell, as Amwell Township then was, of which I have any 
knowledge. 

His son, Harmon Dawlis, continued the interest for a while by operating 
the two grist mills only — the upper and the lower — as he styled them. But 
in the course of events, flush with prosperity, which enkindled the fire of 
venture inborn, and urged forward by his patrons, he built the distillery for 
maize and rye. This mill stood less than a hundred yards south of the old 
mill — the wheelpit being near the site over which flows the rill, — the feeding 
facilities — the means of utilizing the remains of the mash or wort after the 
whiskey was distilled therefrom, — the cattle pens, hog pens, etc., being a 
little below on the opposite side of the rill-— lower than the still works, so 
that the slops flowed through suitable troughs directly from the distillery 
to the pens where they were consumed. The water which drove the ma- 
chinery of this distillery was taken from the race which led the water from 
the dam above to the old — the flrst built — mill. The capacity for consuming 
bushels of maize and rye per day, or the gallons of whiskey made, of this 
distillery, I have never seen stated. They who have handed down to us the 
capacity for doing work herein have their ratings in number of cattle and 
hogs fed by the slops, etc., after the whiskey was distilled from the wort. 
This rating was as above stated, — "enough to feed 500 cattle and 1,000 hogs. " 

It may be well to remark passingly that in the earliest times in Amwell, 
and during many years thereafter, distilleries were the best markets for 
maize and rye, — they who maintained them paying the highest prices for 
what they bought and paying the most promptly, — as the products of the 
distillery were the readiest of sale, being commodities without which the 
earliest settlers hereabout would not do — whiskey being drunk by ii<fecy- 
body, and beef and pork in large quantities consumed by all. The rivals 
which more than all else took business from Amwell, and precipitated her 
decline, were the distillery at Phillips' Mills, the one at Opdycke's Mills 



(later Headquarters, now Grover), and the one at Neshanic Ford, — the ca- 
pacity of each being nearly equal to that of the one at Aniwell. 

The other three mills were ventures of enterprising men other than the 
Dawlises. The sawmill was erected about 1730. It stood a little way north 
of the east end of the upper — the big — dam, as this dam, after Landis, in 
ISll, built the old woolen factory, was called, quite opposite the sawyer's 
house, which, by the way, was taken down by Amos Hunt, about 35 years 
ago. 

The Old Dawlis Mill stood on the south side of the lane leading from 
the Trenton road in to that mill, up against the forebay; the distillery stood 
against the race, a few yards south of this mill, and received from tne race 
the supply of water which drove its machinery. The water wneels which 
drove the machinery of these mills must have been small — not more than 20 
feet in diameter. The woolen factory was built farther north — farther down 
the stream — in order that the wheel which drove its machinery might have 
a greater diameter and thus be driven by less water. In earlier times, mills 
were so built that their water wheels were less in diameter, and wider. 
Thus constructed, more water, per hour, was used to drive them; but in 
those times the streams were larger and there was little need to be frugal 
in the use of water. 

Prior to the building of the woolen mill, the walls of which still stand, 
the upper dam was a rude structure, sufficient only to hold water to drive 
the sawmill. But the woolen mill, a very pretentious thing in the time in 
which it was built, needed a dam which would hold water enough, caught 
during the wetter part of the year, to drive the woolen mill and the lower 
grist mill continuously during the drier seasons; so, as the dam for the 
sawmill spanned the rill at a site at wnich, at each end, the banks rose steep- 
ly up to the height of many feet, the builder of the woolen mill secured the 
dam of the sawmill, and a right of those who owned adjacent lands, to raise 
it as high as would ever be needed to hold water enough, caught during the 
wet weather, to drive the factory uninterruptedly through the severest 
drought. Though the dam was never built so high as specifications allowed, 
the drought was long, and more than an ordinary quantity of water was 
used if the mill at any time was stopped by the want of water. 

After the raising of the dam, the sawmill was no more — it had served 
its turn and now gave place to things which were more useful at that period 
of time to a progressive people. 

The oil mill was only far enough down the rill to afford sufficient fall 
to use the water which flowed from the wheelpit of the sawmill. It was 
built about 1732, and operated till near the end of the 18th century. 

The cider mill was the last of the ancient milling structures built upon 
the bank of this useful mill-driving rill. When orchards had hereabouts 
grown, to be able to manufacture the fruit thereof into cider, vinegar, or 
brandy, was a need which was supplied by building and operating this mill. 
The site upon which it stood was only far enough down the rill to afford 
fall to drive the wheel and the gearings thereto attached. It was profitably 
operated till well into the 19th century. The woolen factory was no part 
of the ancient village, as it was not built till 1811. 

So much for the rill that from a spring nestled high up in the hill near 
Rocktown flows down the slope north of Rocktown into the basin of the Ne- 
shanic, to pour its waters into Mallard Rivulet. So much for the topography 
of its environs; so much for the mills and their accessories, and so much 
for the environing institutions necessary to a developing young settlement, 
which has each served its turn and passed away, or else is still serving the 
purpose for which it was built, growing less useful as time is passing, and 
is slowly but surely gliding into the inevitable, in which all things begin, 
endure for a while, and then end. 

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